{"id":652,"date":"2009-07-28T12:08:58","date_gmt":"2009-07-28T10:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/?p=652"},"modified":"2009-08-06T12:40:40","modified_gmt":"2009-08-06T10:40:40","slug":"soviet-aircraft-of-world-war-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/?p=652","title":{"rendered":"Soviet aircraft of World War II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"il2\"
\nThis is an overview of the most important Soviet aircraft of WW II.<\/p>\n

Fighters<\/h3>\n

At the start of the war with Germany, the Polikarpov I-16<\/strong> was the most numerous fighter. It was armed with two 7.62mm MGs and two 20mm cannons, at lower altitudes it performed equal to the Bf109E. The MiG-1<\/strong> and MiG-3<\/strong> were used somewhat, but were not liked due to their deficiencies.<\/p>\n

The most numerous and successful fighters were the Yakovlev Yak-1<\/strong> to Yak-9 models. The Yak-1 had one 20mm cannon and one 12.7mm MG. The Yak-3<\/strong> added a second MG. The Yak-7<\/strong> had a 20mm cannon and two 7.62mm MGs. The most numerous type, the Yak-9<\/strong>, was introduced in late 1942. Armament consisted on a 20mm cannon and a 12.7mm MG.<\/p>\n

The other numerous series of fighters were the Lavochkin LaGG-3<\/strong>, La-5<\/strong>, and La-7<\/strong>. The two later models were armed with two 20mm cannons<\/p>\n

Bombers<\/h3>\n

In 1941 the Tupolev SB<\/strong> was practically the only bomber in the Soviet air force. It could carry a 600kg bomb load. 1941 also saw the introduction of the Petlyakov Pe-2<\/strong>, which could carry a much improved load of 1,600 kg. It was accompanied by the Tupolev Tu-2<\/strong>, a plane with\u00a0 similar capabilities. The Ilyushin Il-4<\/strong> was introduced in 1942, capable of carrying 2,600kg of bombs.<\/p>\n

The most numerous bomber\/attack plane was of course the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik<\/strong> and it’s Il-10<\/strong> successor introduced in 1944. Some 30,000 Il-2s were built throughout the war. Early models were single-seaters. Huge losses to fighters prompted the addition of a rear gunner in 1942.\u00a0 The Il-2 had two cannons, either 20mm or 23mm, two 7.62mm MGs, and was capable of carrying up to 600kg of bombs. The Il-10 did not have forward-firing MGs.<\/p>\n

Others<\/h3>\n

The most numerous aircraft of the Soviet air force was the Polikarpov Po-2<\/strong> biplane. It was used for many roles, including trainer and night attacks, where it proved to be difficult to shoot down due to its low speed and low flying.<\/p>\n

The Lisunov Li-2<\/strong> was a license-built transport aircraft based on the Douglas DC-3.<\/p>\n

Paint schemes<\/h3>\n

The Soviet aircraft used a variety of paint schemes, including special winter schemes. Undersides seem to have been predominantly blue-gray, and camouflage was often green-brown or green-gray.<\/p>\n

Aircraft of WW II<\/strong>: Germany<\/a> – Great Britain<\/a> – US Air Force<\/a> – US Navy<\/a> – Japan<\/a> – Soviet Union<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an overview of the most important Soviet aircraft of WW II. Fighters At the start of the war with Germany, the Polikarpov I-16 was the most numerous fighter. It was armed with two 7.62mm MGs and two 20mm cannons, at lower altitudes it performed equal to the Bf109E. The MiG-1 and MiG-3 were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[77,53],"class_list":{"0":"post-652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-gaming","7":"tag-aviation","8":"tag-history","9":"czr-hentry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/plKIk-aw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}